"The Channel project, a pilot scheme established in April 2007 and run by six police forces, provides parents, teachers and youth workers with training to recognise the warning signs of "grooming" by radicals and a mechanism to report concerns over a child, or group of children, to the police. A panel of community leaders then decides the best course of action, in the most serious cases referring them to social services."

I was unable to locate an image of the Hafod Islamic Centre or the Swansea University mosque. I plan to make return 'visits' to several of the sites I have briefly surveyed over the past week. It doesn't take the place of fieldwork, but has been an intriguing exercise.

Friday, 27 March 2009

According to various maps, this is Madrassah Mosque in Dixon Ave. I have no knowledge of Glasgow however, and the site has no labels. Clearly, this is one of the issues associated with Street View (and its use in an academic setting).

"The financer of the madrasa-cum-orphanage on the south-western island of Bhola, identified as Faisal, who lives in London and runs a UK-based charity was arrested in Dhaka, officials said preferring anonymity."

I've chosen a few from Manchester today. Clearly, it would be possible - given time and endurance - to build up a complete picture. I may well assemble these pictures onto the main website in due course. It can take time to locate mosques, using postcodes and cross-referencing, given that the results are often not immediate. There are some mosques which have good pix on flickr, but are obscured in Street View. I have ended up on several detours, but presumably this situation will improve in due course, unless someone pulls the plug. I'm keeping an archive copy of the snapshots as well. It helps to have a fast connection ...

Opinion piece: Philip Johnston, Telegraph, Time to speak up about Britain's Islamists, 22 Mar 09 "Countering extremist propaganda is a proper use for public money, provided it goes to the right people. Yet there is growing evidence that it does not. There needs to be a far more aggressive and public challenge to those aspects of Islamic radicalism that are inimical to a liberal democracy: the idea that a pan-Islamic state or caliphate is an acceptable political aim; or that Sharia law should be allowed anywhere in this country; or that jihad should be supported around the world as matter of faith. It is about identifying and speaking up for shared values. Nobody pretends these are easy issues. But there is no point in the Government ducking them in the interests of "community harmony" if it simply ends up accommodating – and even funding – groups that are hostile to the basic tenets of our way of life."

Opinion piece: Seumas Milne, Guardian, This counter-terror plan is in ruins. Try one that works, 26 Mar 09 "The British government's brand new counter-terrorism strategy is already in disarray - and ministers have only themselves to blame. The souped-up plan to fight al-Qaida, confound dirty bombers, halt suicide attacks and confront "extremism" in the country's Muslim community was unveiled by the prime minister with much fanfare on Tuesday. But even before the 175-page "Contest 2" document had been launched, the credibility of its promise to engage with the Muslim mainstream had been thrown into question by the decision of Hazel Blears, the communities secretary, to cut all links with the Muslim Council of Britain."

""We have been overwhelmed by the messages of support we have received from concerned Muslims and non-Muslims following the action taken by Communities and Local Government Secretary of State Hazel Blears MP. It is important to uphold the principle of governmental non-interference in voluntary community organisations. This meeting will provide an opportunity for British Muslims to make their views known in a clear manner and to also comment on the government's new CONTEST 2 strategy," said Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

"Representatives from a wide range of Muslim organisations including those who are not affiliated with the MCB are expected to attend the meeting."

Here is today's random selection, this time from Bradford. The picture will become more comprehensive in due course. Clearly, Google's data collecting vehicles didn't go down every street, or couldn't access specific sites. To this data, there's a considerable amount - of course - on the general Google Maps pages, including directory information and links to flikr etc. It's interesting to see the integration of mosques into the urban landscape. Also relevant as a basic research tool...

"Blears has suspended official links with the MCB over allegations that its deputy general secretary endorsed a Hamas call for attacks on foreign troops, including possibly British troops, if they try to intercept arms smuggled into Gaza."

Monday, 23 March 2009

Google Street View has received a mixed press recently, especially in terms of privacy issues. It would be quite interesting to set up a mosque street view mash-up. Given a few spare hours, I could have found plenty more in the UK and elsewhere. Here are a few random examples from London:

Google Street View has received a mixed press recently, especially in terms of privacy issues. It would be quite interesting to set up a mosque street map system. Given a few spare hours, I could have found plenty more in the UK and elsewhere. Here are a few random examples from London:

"Under it, adulterers and homosexuals would be killed by stoning. Asked if that would include anybody - even a Cabinet minister such as Business Secretary Lord Mandelson - Choudary responded with an astonishing diatribe."

Friday, 20 March 2009

SOAS, Thirty Years On: The Social and Cultural Impacts of the Iranian Revolution, 5-6 June 2009 "This conference proposes to focus on these contradictory developments in the social and cultural lives of Iranians since the revolution. It aims to bring some of the best-known practitioners in the media and contemporary arts inside Iran together with academicians and theoreticians of these developments in a unique encounter. The first day will focus mainly on social issues and changing values around women and young people, while the second day will examine novel forms of cultural expressivity including rap music and blogging."

Thursday, 19 March 2009

"Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said, “The MCB is very pleased with the decision of the Metropolitan Police offering Babar Ahmed compensation for the treatment he suffered while in custody. Good sense has at long last prevailed."

Tuesday, 17 March 2009

Ali Eteraz, Guardian, 'Comment is free', An imam who can, 17 Mar 09 "Sheikh Abdul Hakim Murad is perhaps the most significant British Muslim leader around. It is too bad that so few people know about him. Now that he has launched the Cambridge Muslim College, which is designed to train "local" specialists in Islamic knowledge who are able to "celebrate their identity" as British and Muslim, he should be given his due and treated like a national asset."

Monday, 16 March 2009

University of Exeter, The School of Arts, Languages and Literatures (SALL), Britain and the Muslim World: Historical Perspectives, University of Exeter, 17-19 April 2009 "This conference aims to explore the historical impact of cross cultural encounters between the Muslim World and Britain by bringing together writers, established scholars, younger researchers, public intellectuals and members of the media to present and discuss cutting edge research on the question of how past relations have brought us to our current situation, and to propose directions for necessary further consideration and research. At present, scholarly knowledge of the multiple encounters between Britain and the Muslim World is dispersed among specialized academic disciplines and so largely unavailable to the media and general public. A key aim of the conference is to assemble specialists from all academic fields-history, international relations, finance, law, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, migration and diaspora studies, gender studies, art history and design, music, and comparative literatures-and to bring them into dialogue while exploring ways of making their combined knowledge more generally available than it is at present in order to develop a deeper public understanding of the long cultural interaction between Islam and Britain."

"No political movement can hope to win arguments if it turns the best and bravest into its foes. For the most courageous British Muslims, the Labour government and wider liberal society already seem slippery and hypocritical. Soon, they will be irredeemably tainted.

"Take Ansar Ullah, a Bengali leftist from the old school. Like many secularists of his generation, his life has been dominated by the struggle against Jamaat-e-Islami. The party's name is rarely mentioned in our public life, although its supporters in the Muslim Council of Britain and the Islamic Foundation are on the radio almost daily. The Bengali equivalents of British Observer readers know it all too well. They regard Jamaat as we regard the BNP: the sworn and potentially deadly enemy of all their best principles."

""I can see that the British public will regard the protesters as insensitive," he says, smiling. "But in my opinion, that is outweighed by our sensitivities to families in Iraq who've lost relatives at the hands of the British. The troops were not heroes, but cowards, doing the bidding of a British government engaged in state-sponsored terrorism.""

"Choudary defended the Luton protests: "If it is unpalatable, they should not go to Iraq. If the British are going to be engaging in torture, killing women and children, that needs to be condemned."

"But Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, who comes from Luton, said the protesters did not represent British Muslims: "This is al-Muhajiroun remnants – these are known figures who have been long associated with al-Muhajiroun.""

Nouse, Gay Muslims face ‘two-pronged prejudice’, 10 Mar 09 "Pav Akhtar, the first non-white president of the Cambridge University Students Union, is challenging the conservative conceptions of what it means to be a Muslim. In 2006 he also became the first gay Muslim to run for NUS president. He lost to Gemma Tumulty by 28 votes amidst claims of homophobia and Islamophobia."

Monday, 9 March 2009

Observer, British Muslim leader urged to quit over Gaza, 8 Mar 09 "Dr Daud Abdullah, deputy director-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, is facing calls for his resignation, after it emerged that he is one of 90 Muslim leaders from around the world who have signed a public declaration in support of Hamas and military action."

Also Zahed Amanullah, Guardian, Comment is Free Thriving in America?, 3 Mar 09 "It's easy to jump on Britain's 7% figure and extrapolate many unsavoury things about British Muslim life. Yet the sense of tension here, even compared to post-9/11 America, is palpable. At the risk of echoing Barack Obama's worst campaign gaffe, people may cling to religion, culture, and the proximity of their families in these circumstances. Even then, British Muslims have thrived in demonstrable ways – in literature, music, politics, and business. How one feels about "thriving" (as the figures from Bangladesh show) is relative. I feel I'm thriving here, too."

This in turn pointed me to the site of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, which I haven't looked at for some time. There's some useful research material on this in relation to this blog:

Tuesday, 3 March 2009

Anya Hart Dyke, Guardian, We want a more British Islam, 1 Mar 09 [opinion piece] "I have been delighted by the level of discussion generated by Quilliam Foundation's report Mosques Made in Britain across broadcast, online and "new" media and believe it complements the findings of the Charity Commission's mosques survey, also published this week. Mosques and mosque-based cultural centres can and do deliver a range of services and activities for their congregants. But there remain fundamental concerns about the quality of the religious service provided by mosques to worshippers."

Monday, 2 March 2009

"Broadcaster and film-maker Navid Akhtar talks about the Ka'aba - or the Black Cube - at the heart of the Masjid al Haram Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is the holiest shrine of Islam, encircled by millions of pilgrims every year, and is traditionally said to have been built by Abraham on the foundations of the first house of Adam."

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About the Islam in Britain blog

This blog is a series of feeds and links to information relating to Islam and Muslims in Britain. It's part of virtuallyislamic.com. Earlier feeds in the Virtually Islamic blog on related areas can be found here. Follow my Twitter feed (@garybunt) here for regular updates on blog posts. I'm also active on Facebook.

I have a related chapter on Muslims in Britain and the internet in Postcolonial Media Culture, Rinella Cere & Ros Brunt (editors), (Palgrave, 2011).

Some of the content of this blog links into the MA Islamic Studies at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (previously the University of Wales, Lampeter) - specifically the Islam Today module. It also links into my level 5 undergraduate module Islam in the West.

Inclusion of headlines, links and comments does not imply endorsement by Gary R. Bunt. Links are for information purposes only.